Mr Birling

• 'As if we where all mixed up together like bees in a hive- community and all that nonsense'

  • Themes - Capitalism vs Socialism, Responsibility, Social class, older vs younger
  • Mr B uses ZOOMORPHISM to dehumanise the lower class. He degrades and mocks social responsibility and portrays it as animalistic, fit for small, insignificant 'bees'
  • 'Nonsense' underscores his belief that social responsibility is trivial and insignificant due to his wealth
  • The hyphen is a stage direction for the actor to pause before saying community which conveys repulsion to the idea of community
• Why does Priestley do this?

  • Priestly is portraying Mr B (microcosm) as dislikeable for the audience to critique the upper class capitalists and encourage socialism - he lacks compashion and kindness, which is something capatalists dont have
  • Priestly shows that socialism is a better attitude
  • Show younger vs older gen - he is unwilling to change or accept social responsibility unlike sheila or eric
• 'Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges (-Inspector)

  • Themes - C vs S, Responsibility
  • Syntax (word order) - The Inspector emphasises the order of importance, however capitalists invert this order - they care about themselves before other people. Priestley critisizes capatalist priorities
  • Why? - Priestley may do this to encourage socialism by being responsible for each other first, before thinking about individual privileges to achieve a greater sense of community
• 'Im a hard headed, practical man of business. And I say there isn't a chance of war'

  • Theme - capitalism (hard headed)
  • Birling speaks in a dismissive, confident tone to reflect he is proud of his wealth and status, and over boasts it
  • Priestley uses dramatic irony to make Birling come across as foolish - it devalues his opinion and therefore makes him look foolish
  • Priestly may do this to mock capitalists over confidence and show that because of their money and status, they have a lot of self assurance, causing them to look silly in front of the audience because we know he is wrong
• 'The way these cranks talk and write now, you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else'


  • Social responsibility
  • Use of satire - Priestley is making fun of Mr Birling's capitalist ideology. He uses a satirical tone to expose Mr Birling's monolithic attitudes and dismissal of social responsibility
  • 'crank' reflects his immoral disregard for those advocating for the equality and freedom of the proletariat
  • Mr Birling's dismissive attitudes functions as the epitome of the Edwardian Bourgeois arrogance, emphasising the divide between individualism and social responsibility
  • Ironic - While Birling dismisses the idea of social responsibility, the Inspector later demonstrates the tragic consequence of ignoring society's interconnectedness through exposing the Birling's involvement with Eva Smith
  • Priestley uses Mr Birling to critique those in society who dismiss responsibility
• 'I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next honours list'

  • Use of short sentence - mirrors his narrow focus and obsession for a knighthood. This reflects the bourgeois fixation on hierarchle validation and social prestege
  • Birling's fixation is emblematic of how members of the bourgeois focused more on preserving their pristine public reputation, more than being compassionate for others in societty. Mr Birling is the epitome of the upper classes selfishness
  • Use of symbolism - Knighthood serves as a symbol of Birling's unscupulous pursuit of social validation, exposing his delusional perception of status
  • Alternitavly, his certainty for knighthood may stem from his social class insecurity as Birling is representative of new money, rather than being born into the upper class
• 'unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable'

  • method - dramatic irony - Mr Birling is sure that the titanic is unsinkable - the audience knows otherwhise
  • symbolism - the titanic was a symbol of wealth, money and status - a certain wealthy class where able to buy seats on this ship - the titanic could be seen as a symbol of capitalism
  • Mr Birling belives that because of the capitalist ideaology of the titanic, it is unsinkable due to all the money which is associated with it
  • this shows the arrogance of the capitalists as they think they are untouchable
  • priestley foreshadows the downfall of capitalism, with using the downfall of the birlings as a microcosm.